Lady Potters 63

Metamora 35

Something’s happening here, and it’s good, and it’s fun, and these basketball born-agains, the Potters who had lost five in a row, now have won three in a row and have created the streak in the best way, by playing better each time out and doing things that cause the coach, Bob Becker, to get right up next to schoolboy giddy and almost say things tonight that he really wants to say but knows he has to wait, and the words come tumbling out . . .

“I went and saw Notre Dame and Peoria Central last night . . .”

Two of the top five teams in Class 3A, teams likely in the same regional with Morton when the state tournaments begin next month, teams capable of winning a state championship that Morton has won four times in the last seven seasons.

“And I’m believing more and more . . . ”

Wait for it.

“Nothing’s going to be easy . . . ”

Wait.

“I’m not making any guarantees . . . ”

Wait.

“But I’m more confident now that our team is going to be more prepared and ready now because of how they’re thinking about each other. Look, they’re having fun. There’s smiles. They’re playing loose and free.”

This one was over early in the third quarter. Up by six at halftime, the Potters went on an 15-5 run that opened with a Tatym Lamprecht 3 from the left side and ended with a Graci Junis put-back of a rebound she stole from the hands of lesser jumpers. Again, as in a rout of Mahomet-Seymour earlier in the week, the Potters’ defense was as efficient as the offense, Becker suddenly a devotee of the 2-3 zone defense. (“I credit my dad,” the Hall of Fame coach said. “He asked if I’d tried it.”)

Best of all, once the issue was not in doubt, the Potters got better. They went on a 19-2 run in four minutes of the fourth quarter – a Lamprecht 3 followed by her breakaway layup off an Izzy Hutchinson steal . . . an Addy Engel drive in the paint followed by a mid-range jumper . . . an Izzy breakaway of her own . . . a Junis mid-range jumper . . . a Hutchinson drive, an Ellie VanMeenen drive, and a layup by Kerrigan Vandel – suddenly, it was 59-30.

But wait.

All this was good.

But you should have seen this.

“I wanted to run out there and high-five her,” Bob Becker said of a moment only four minutes into the game when he saw . . .

Metamora has this one really good player, strong and aggressive; in football, she’d be a cornerback seeking contact. So here comes a rebound her way and as she goes up for the ball, so does Graci Junis.

Graci, a volleyball star, never a cornerback.

But this time, four minutes into the game, the Metamora girl has the rebound until Graci wants it, and here’s what Graci does. She rips it out of the cornerback’s hands, and she does it with a snarl, or at least enough of it’s-my-damned-ball that Bob Becker, his sport coat flapping, runs three steps onto the court in celebration of what he has just seen, which he described as . . .

“That #23, who is a beast physically, and Graci, who has not always been a beast . . .”

I say, “And Graci ripped it out of her hands.”

“YES!!!”

He went on. “An aggressive Graci Junis? Instead of a wet noodle? I LOVE IT!”

The Potters loved the whole thing.

Junis: “The dynamic of the team has totally changed. We were so into our heads, thinking, thinking. Not tonight. Fun.”

Lamprecht: “Everyone’s really confident now and trusting each other. This is the best I’ve seen all season.”

Engel: “Coach has been talking about having an unwavering belief in ourselves, and I think we finally have that.”

Hutchinson: “This will continue on.”

The Potters, now 13-9 for the season and 5-4 in the Mid-Illini, play at Galesburg (19-5) Saturday afternoon. Metamora is 14-8, 5-4.

Morton’s scoring tonight: Lamprecht 18 (with four 3’s), Engel 16, Hutchinson 9, Junis 8, VanMeenen 6, Abbey Pollard 4, Vandel 2.